Her parents sat beside Ethan.
The most expensive wine was opened.
The appetizers arrived.
Then Claire ordered four lobster dinners.
There were five adults at the table.
I waited.
The waiter glanced toward me.
Claire dismissed him with a wave.
“Nothing for Eleanor.”
Then she slid my water glass closer.
“That will be enough for her.”
I looked at Ethan.
For twenty-five years, I had done everything I could for that boy.
His father disappeared when Ethan was six.
I worked mornings cleaning offices, afternoons in a school cafeteria, and evenings wherever I could find extra kitchen work.
Some months, I ate less so Ethan wouldn’t notice how difficult things were.
When he went to college, I still found ways to help him.
Now he sat across from me wearing a suit that probably cost more than my first car.
“Ethan?”
He kept his eyes down.
“Mom, please.”
“Please what?”
He finally looked at me.
“Don’t embarrass us. Remember your place.”
Something inside me became completely still.
Not angry.
Just finished.
So I nodded.
“Understood.”
Claire smiled.
She thought she had won.
Then she started talking about how certain relatives no longer “fit” into the life she and Ethan were building.
Her mother laughed softly.
Claire looked directly at me.
“We’re meeting more influential people now. It’s important to be realistic about what everyone brings to the family.”
Beside my chair sat a small strawberry cake I had brought for my granddaughter Lily.
Claire glanced at it.
Then she looked back at me.
“What exactly do you think you contribute, Eleanor?”
I could have answered.
